'We lost 3 men the first day'

Thursday

Jun 6, 2013 at 10:45 AM

MIDDLEBORO — Sixty- nine years ago on this date of June 6, Sherwin St. Clair Grannum, 88, of 31 Acorn St. was on a ship off Omaha Beach waiting to disembark as part of World War II's D-Day invasion of France. Assigned to the 502nd Port Battalion, Mr. Grannum would gain the beach with his unit sometime in the early afternoon.

Bob Lessard

MIDDLEBORO — Sixty- nine years ago on this date of June 6, Sherwin St. Clair Grannum, 88, of 31 Acorn St. was on a ship off Omaha Beach waiting to disembark as part of World War II's D-Day invasion of France. Assigned to the 502nd Port Battalion, Mr. Grannum would gain the beach with his unit sometime in the early afternoon.

The Middleboro resident grew up in Boston and played a trumpet for the Roxbury Memorial High School Band, graduating in 1942. He volunteered for service at age 17 and was inducted into the Army at 18. He was sent to boot camp at Camp Myles Standish in Taunton.

He subsequently was transferred to South Boston and then to an Army welding school in Aberdeen, Md. He was then sent to Camp Shanks in New York and assigned to the 502nd Port Battalion to await deployment. The unit sailed from the port of New York on October 13, 1943 and arrived at Camp Crookston, Glascow, Scotland six days later.

While stationed in Scotland various members of the Battalion, who were musicians, started playing music together, including Sherwin Grannum with a trumpet. "We really weren't an Army band. We even played in many dance halls in Glascow during our time in Scotland," he said.

In official reports obtained from the National Archives by Andrew J. Brozyna, author of "Longshore Soldiers, —¦ the musicians became members of a Battalion Band. The group, according to the archive reports, "has good grounds for the belief that their organization was the first to furnish organized entertainment to American troops in Normandy.

"The story goes back to the United Kingdom and the determination of Colonel James T. Pierce of Erie, PA that his Battalion would have a band. Instruments were procured and a band formed at Camp Crookston in Scotland. The instruments were brought along when the Battalion sailed for France. On approximately D plus 12 the first concert was given." "We were jamming when some commander heard us playing," said Mr. Grannum. "The next thing we knew we were no longer involved with the unloading." Archive files report that, "It was an unplanned and informal affair which partially disrupted Beach operations as soldiers gathered from the fox holes or adjacent fields. Trucks pulled up on the road to listen to a little jive." The archive records further reveal, "On orders of the Brigade Commander the band was removed from other duties and put "on the road" as the first organized show in Normandy." Mr. Grannum, upon reflection, stated, "We played almost every night at some spot, large or small. And, in the morning we would blow Reveille and go back to bed, "he laughingly recalled. "We even played in Paris at a concert in the Rainbow Hotel.

"Our proudest day was on St. Bastille Day in Le Havre, where our band of about 35 members marched in a parade with all the big Army bands. Some of those bands had 20 or more trumpets, while our group had four. We were well received when our band marched by playing the "Thunderer." According to Mr. Grannum, the 502nd Port Battalion was a segregated outfit consisting of African-American enlisted personnel, while the leaders were white officers. The Battalion men were stevedores, who were to unload equipment from the various ships arriving off the beach.

The Battalion was staged at a marshalling area in LLanover, Wales from May 1, 1944 through June 2, when the unit departed for the D-Day invasion.

"We lost three men the first day as we were walking in deep water to the beach," he said. "There was a rope line, which was tied to the bow of the ship and stretched to the shore. The line broke causing three of the shorter men to end up over their heads and drown.

"When we reached the beach we were ordered to take our mess forks and probe the sand for anti-personnel bombs. After clearing the area, we then started digging fox holes. Colonel Pierce, our Battalion leader, was seriously injured losing a part of his leg when he stepped on one of the mines," remembered Mr. Grannum.

A forty- four year resident of Middleboro, Sherwin Grannum was married to Teresa Headen of Talladega, Alabama for 55 years before her passing in 2002. They have a son Sherwin S. Grannum,Jr., also from Middleboro.The senior Grannum was employed for 23 years at Wood —Hue Kitchens in West Bridgewater from which he retired in 1990. While at that company, he was a shop steward and financial secretary for the Carpenters and Joiners Union.

Currently, he is an executive board member of Simeon L. Nickerson American Legion Post 64; a trustee for John F. Glass Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2188 and a member of the Taunton Disabled American Veterans.